Malvo admits being triggerman in several attacks

November 11 2002

A 17-year-old sniper suspect, arrested in connection with a shooting spree in which 10 people died and four were wounded has told police he pulled the trigger in several of those shootings, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper - quoting an unnamed law enforcement source - says John Lee Malvo, arrested on October 24 with John Allen Muhammad, 41, has admitted to shooting Linda Franklin, an FBI analyst, in Virginia.

Ms Franklin, 47, was killed on October 14 in a parking lot while loading her car.

Malvo is being held without bond in a jail for adults after prosecutors said his fingerprints were found on a rifle linked to the shootings that terrorised Washington, Maryland and Virginia in October.

Malvo and Muhammad may face the death penalty if they are convicted of the charges against them.");document.write("

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The newspaper says police in Tucson, Arizona, are investigating whether the pair were involved in the fatal shooting of a man playing golf on March 19.

Malvo allegedly told investigators that the shootings were well-planned and involved scouting missions. Sources said that Malvo described himself and his partner as behaving like soldiers: One would be a lookout and communicate with the other on two-way radios.

If conditions, like traffic, were not right, they would not shoot, Malvo told investigators. They deliberately hopped from jurisdiction to jurisdiction to create confusion, and they watched the news coverage of their crimes, the sources said.

Malvo was talkative, smiling, even bragging in response to indirect questions from investigators, sources said, but he was adamant in refusing to talk about Muhammad or to even mention his name, using "we" a lot.

Muhammad, 41, deflected police efforts to interrogate him in Prince William County, maintaining his silence for hours and even refusing to give up his name to a booking clerk.

Michael Arif, who has been appointed to head Malvo's defence team, has said that he will work to suppress any statements that Malvo made during his interrogation by federal and local investigators.

"If in fact those are the statements Mr Malvo made, there will be a motion to suppress those statements, as certain as the sun rises in the east," Mr Arif said. He said he met with Malvo for 2 hours on Saturday but declined further comment.